1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a ceiling panel system and, more specifically, to a ceiling panel system that can give a three-dimensional look to a plurality of ceiling panels arranged in a lattice pattern on an arbitrary horizontal plane.
2. Related prior Art
In an effort to conceal cables, ducts, pipes and so forth, an access ceiling is installed under the roof of an office building, a subway station building, a factory building or the like. The access ceiling is completed by a wide variety of finishes such as ceiling panels or boards. For firm installation of the ceiling panels, they should be fixedly secured to an upper structural body by tightening screws or bolts or welding. However, the task of installing the ceiling panels by such a tightening or welding operation requires a great deal of manpower and time and therefore is unsuitable for application to an access ceiling of a subway station building in which maintenance or repair for a piping and a wiring has to be performed from time to time.
A great number of prior art references, including U.S. pat. Nos. 5,603,193, 6,205,733 and 6,230,463, disclose techniques for installing a plurality of ceiling panels to a ceiling structural body on an arbitrary horizontal plane. As disclosed in these references, a plurality of grids are attached to the ceiling structural body and rectangular ceiling panels are secured to the grids in the form of cross stripes. The prior art ceiling panel systems noted above pose a problem in that they suffer from significant reduction in an ornamental effect, because the rectangular ceiling panels are monotonously arranged in a lattice pattern on the arbitrary horizontal plane.
In the meantime, the ceiling panels are made of varying kinds of materials such as wooden plates, veneer boards, gypsum boards, metal plates or the like. In view of the fact that vibration and impulse act continuously on the ceiling panels of a subway station building or a factory building, the ceiling panel materials should exhibit rigidity, wear resistance and anti-corrosion property great enough to resist the vibration and impulse. Thus, metal plates have been mainly used as the ceiling panels for that purpose. Although the ceiling panels made of metal plates are produced by a sheet metal working, the intrinsic features of the sheet metal working make it quite difficult to form the ceiling panels into diversified shapes.